the example of Massachusetts. It was while the Virginia legislature was considering a motion to arm and train the militia of that colony that Patrick Henry in the most famous of Revolutionary speeches said, "If we wish to be free; if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending; if we mean not basely to Israel Putnam Unnitching His Horse from the Plow to Start for the American Camp before Boston abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained-we must fight! I repeat it, sir-we must fight! An appeal to arms, and to the God of hosts, is all that is left us." REFERENCES. Fiske, The American Revolution, Vol. I; Howard, The Preliminaries of the Revolution; Trevelyan, The American Revolution; Fisher, The American Revolution; Sloane, The French War and the Revolution; Channing, History of the United States, Vol. III; Tyler, A Literary History of the American Revolution, Vol. I. TOPICAL READINGS. 1. George the Third. Fiske, The American Revolution, Vol. I, 38-45. 2. How the Americans Resisted the Stamp Act. Fiske, The American Revolution, Vol. I, 21-27. 3. Benjamin Franklin's Examination by the House of Commons. Hart, American History Told by Contemporaries, Vol. II, 407-411. 4. Samuel Adams Makes up His Mind. Fiske, The American Revolution, Vol. I, 54-57. 5. The Story of the Boston Massacre. Fiske, The American Revolution, Vol. I, 65-72. 6. How the Tea Question Was Discussed in the Newspapers. Tyler, A Literary History of the Revolution, Vol. I, 251-257. 7. The Boston Tea Party. Fiske, The American Revolution, Vol. I, 85-93. 8. The Five Intolerable Acts. Fiske, The American Revolution, Vol. I, 93-97. 9. John Adams's Account of the First Continental Congress. Hart, American History Told by Contemporaries, Vol. II, 434-439. 10. Patrick Henry's Most Famous Speech. Tyler, Patrick Henry, 128-152. ILLUSTRATIVE LITERATURE. Poems: O'Reilly, Crispus Attucks; Tea-Party; Francis Hopkinson, The Holmes, A Ballad of the Boston Paine, Liberty Tree; Benjamin Franklin, The Mother Country. Stories: Cooke, Stories of the Old Dominion; Doctor Vandyke; The Virginia Comedians; Hawthorne, Septimius Felton; Cooper, Lionel Lincoln; Sedgwick, The Linwoods; Devereux, From Kingdom to Colony; Kenyon, Won in War Time. Biographies: Tyler, Patrick Henry; Hosmer, Samuel Adams; Stillé, John Dickinson; Morse, Benjamin Franklin; Franklin, Autobiography. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. 1. What is a democracy? Was England a democracy in 1763? Is it a democracy now? What countries were included in the British empire in 1763? 2. Why did the colonies object to a British standing army in America? Is a standing army dangerous to the liberties of the people? Why? 3. Are women and children who cannot vote represented in our lawmaking bodies? What is meant by "public opinion"? If you wanted to get all the people in your town to agree upon some important matter, how would you go about it? 4. Why is mob violence an unwise way of attacking a wrong? 5. Why would it be unjust to take colonists accused of wrongdoing to England for trial? 6. Did the men who threw the tea overboard do right? Why? Why was it difficult to get the colonies to unite in defense of their rights? 7. What prominent Englishmen championed the cause of the colonists in Parliament? What is meant by "the rights of Englishmen"? Was there any actual suffering in America due to British tyranny? How far were the people of England to blame for British aggression upon American rights? 8. Who were the most important American leaders between 1763 and 1775? Were the Americans justified in rebelling against England? Why? CHAPTER VII THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION The Beginning of the War.-Early in 1775, General Gage, the British commander in Boston, was ordered to arrest Samuel The story of Adams and John Hancock, the patriot leaders, and send them Lexington to England for trial. On the night of April 18th, Gage sent The fight at Old North Church, Boston eight hundred troops to Lexington with orders to seize Adams and Hancock, who were staying in that town, and then to push on to Concord and capture or destroy the military stores which the colonists had been collecting there. Warned by Paul Revere, whose midnight ride from Boston is finely described in Longfellow's well-known poem, Adams and Hancock escaped, and when the British soldiers reached Lexington, at sunrise, they were confronted by about fifty minute-men under Captain John Parker. "Disperse, ye villains!" shouted Major Pitcairn, as he rode up at the head of the British troops. "Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon," said Captain Parker to his men, "but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." The British fire at Lexington slew eight of our minute-men, wounded ten, and dispersed the remainder. The British then pressed on to Concord, where they destroyed such military stores as had not been hidden or carried away, and skirmished with some militia at the bridge over the Concord River. It was of this fight that Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of our greatest men of letters, who afterward lived in Concord, wrote: "By the rude bridge that arched the flood, And fired the shot heard round the world." In the meantime companies of minute-men came swarming in from all the neighboring towns. Realizing their danger, the British began to retreat toward Boston. From behind every The retreat rock, clump of trees, and bit of rising ground along their line of march, a deadly fire was poured upon them. The red-coats fell thick and fast and their force was saved from complete destruction only by the timely arrival of Lord Percy with heavy reënforcements. The running fight continued all the afternoon, and at nightfall the harried British were glad to find shelter "Disperse, Ye Villains!" All under the protection of the guns of their fleet in Boston harbor. The victorious colonists encamped before Boston. New England rose as the news of the British attack at Lexington and Concord was carried far and wide. John Stark came at The siege the head of the New Hampshire minute-men, and Nathanael of Boston begun Greene led the militia of Rhode Island. In less than two days Israel Putnam rode into camp with the news that the men of Connecticut were on the march. Before a week passed sixteenthousand "embattled farmers" had gathered before the British lines at Boston. The war of the Revolution had begun. Meanwhile the news of Lexington and Concord was speeding far beyond the borders of New England. Swift riders The Revolucarried it to New York and Pennsylvania, to Virginia and the rising tionary |